Best website to buy train tickets these days?
- Thread starter Efour
- Start date
For sure, but the knock on impact to the day (or even days) after the action is often forgotten by those who don't use the network.
"Ah it is just no trains for a day!"
When actually it is like 3 or 4 days of crap service following any action.
When did buying something on your phone become a chore? Way better...
When there are a handful of train companies each with their own app, and the 'Trainline' app charges you 75p for the privilege?
But you don't have to use them or the trainline? I use split my ticket and its simple / easy to use and never been bettered on price vs the others. So again - don't see the "hassle"; why stand in a queue and pay over the odds?
Also factor in a railcard; sometimes the discount for a one off can be cheaper than the annual fee.
Well qualify your post then fella -
I've spent tens of thousands on rail fare and never heard of Split My Ticket so I imagine folk going on a train infrequently may also be in the same camp.
Presumably once you've bought the tickets via the app you need to go and acquire them from a ticket collection machine in any case? Unless the line you are travelling on is enabled for digital tickets.
Also, if you want train+underground you need a physical ticket.
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Associate
- Joined
- 9 Jan 2013
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- 1,627
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- Worthing, West Sussex
I always use the trainline w/ a 26-30 railcard. The app works perfectly and handy notifications etc 
Based on the spreadsheet I have of delay repay and taxi claims, my partner is averaging 18.4% of journeys in the last 6 months either cancelled or delayed > 1hr
Maybe I just have unrealistically high expectations, but personally I'd absolutely class almost 1/5 failed journeys as "that bad" - I certainly wouldn't consider the train as an option if you reliably have to be at your destination on time.
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I never knew you could claim taxi fare? I am owed £50 if so!
If they leave you stranded with no other option then yes you can, obviously it has to be reasonable; e.g. If you could get easily get a bus instead then they'd likely decline it, the claims we've put in are for when the buses don't bother turning up either
Which operator is that?
West Midlands railway
I'm guessing you took part in the Ryan Air lottery a few years back
It's much more reliable now, don't have a to miss a train just due to there being a massive queue at the counter like happened years ago, you can also fully research the options rather than relying on what the person at the counter tells you, no getting flustered about the queue forming behind you as you try and figure out the best option. No need to leave home with adequate (hopefully) contingency time for queueing and buying a ticket, you buy the ticket in advance from the comfort of home and just walk straight from your home to the platform timed to arrive around 1-2mins before departure.
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Had a quick look, I think you are picking a route that requires 2 changes, the direct trains slightly later/earlier are like £42 which doesn't seem that horrendous.
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How often does that realistically happen? I am about 20 mins away from my GWR station, and you can usually see if there is going to be a problem before you leave the house. Most of my cancellations since have been caused by people jumping in front of high speed trains, and then I figure that my 20 minute walk home isn't all that bad in the grand scheme of life problems. I haven't had it happen once since covid, although I only go in one or two days a week now to the office.And then walk home 20 minutes later because all the trains are cancelled
Again, much better now, because you can check online if trains are delayed/cancelled before setting off from home.And then walk home 20 minutes later because all the trains are cancelled
"Good old days" = go to the station, look up at the board, see the trains are ****ed and go back home.
Nowadays = look up the trains to make sure they are running before leaving the house.
Ideally yes but this is not always the case.
Far too ofter even when checking the apps 15mins before leaving the office to get the train 20mins later things will change.
Even when stood at the platform and looking at the app/boards!
I'm just resigned to the fact that even the staff at the stations don't know what's going on to then update said boards and apps etc.
Sure you get train delays even with attempts at forward planning; Thursday night for example part of my journey had an unadvertised rail replacement bus service (surely the most depressing four word sequence in the English language) for part of the journey, but my point is it's not like train delays are a new phenomenon and it's easier to be forewarned these days, where I live there are multiple different routes I can take to London so there have been times in the past where I've asked my wife to drop me at a different station to avoid an issue on a given line.
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